. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Mammals; Natural history; Mammifères; Sciences naturelles. i i . * V i I. -. I il ^ 'i it 524- FOOD OF THE GREENLAND WHALE. position in tlie acconi))anying illustration, which is taken t'roiu a photugiaiihic portrait ul' the skeleton in the great IMuseiun of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des I'lantes. The Whalebone, or haleen, is found in a series of plates, thick and solid at the insertion into the jaw, and s])litting at the extremity into a multitude of hair-like friuffcs. On each side of the jaw there are more than three hundred of these pl
. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Mammals; Natural history; Mammifères; Sciences naturelles. i i . * V i I. -. I il ^ 'i it 524- FOOD OF THE GREENLAND WHALE. position in tlie acconi))anying illustration, which is taken t'roiu a photugiaiihic portrait ul' the skeleton in the great IMuseiun of Comparative Anatomy at the Jardin des I'lantes. The Whalebone, or haleen, is found in a series of plates, thick and solid at the insertion into the jaw, and s])litting at the extremity into a multitude of hair-like friuffcs. On each side of the jaw there are more than three hundred of these plates, which in a tine specimen are about ten or twelve feet long, and eleven inches wide at their base. The Aveight of baleen which is furnislusd by a large Whale is abont one ton. This suljstance does not take its origin directly from the gnm, but fnim a jK'culiar vascular formation which rests npoiT it. These masses of baleen are placed along the sides of the mouth for the purpose of aiding the Whale in procuring its food and separating it from the water. The mode of feeding which is adojited by the Whale is as follows. The animal frequents those ]iarts of the ocean which are the best supplied with the various creatures on which it feeds, and which are all of very small size, as is needful iromthe size of its gullet, which is not quite two inches in diameter. Small shrimjjs, crabs and lobsters, together with various niollusi'S and medusa;, form the diet on which the vast bulk of th(! Greenland AVliale is sustained. Driving with open mouth through the congregated shoals of these little creatures, the Wliale engulplis them by millions in its enormous jaws, and ctnitinnes its destructive course until it has suffic'ently charged its mouth Mith prey, ("losing its jaws and driving out through the interstices of the Whalebone the water which it taken together with its i)rey, it retains the captured animals wliich are entangled in the Whalebone, and swallows them at its ea
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectmammals, booksubjectnaturalhistory
